Chris, I can't comment on the rest of your questions, but "Also, since I am an EU citizen, will my data stay within the EU?" strikes me as a little, umm, odd. Are you really suggesting that if you go on holiday to the US or Asia (or lots of other places for that matter), you don't want access to your email or docs in Google Docs, etc. In fact, I think I'll craft an answer that Google could provide: "Of course, sir, just so long as you pomise that you yourself will stay within the EU".
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MaryC.fromNZJul 27 '10 at 19:22

When I said 'stays' within the EU I meant if it will be stored on a server within the EU or elsewhere. I'm no privacy expert but I know that the EU has stricter laws than other countries (i.e. the US).
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laktakJul 27 '10 at 21:02

IANAL but the EU's data protection rules say that certain types of personal data on EU citizens cannot leave the EU without their consent, this means that the servers holding certain categories of personal data on EU citizens must be physically in an EU country, or held by company and country that agree to strict regulation of that data. Eg see the US-EU "Safe Harbor" act that allows certain US companies to store EU citizens' data en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_Harbor_Principles
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GAThrawnJul 28 '10 at 13:57

2

Google can put your data on its homepage, right above the searchbox. Red and large. In a <blink> tag.
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badpJul 31 '10 at 20:49

You might also find the Google Apps Security whitepaper interesting. I don't know how much of it extends to the consumer version of Google products, but it should give you some idea of what the infrastructure looks like and how its managed:

Except in a few very specific circumstances (eg services for US Government) Google make no guarantees about where data is stored. However they are extremely proactive about ensuring they can fulfill their privacy and contractual obligations no matter where your data is stored.

Google is collecting a lot of data
about how we use the web. The new
Google Alarm Firefox addon visually &
audibly alerts you whenever your
personal information is being sent to
Google servers.

Even outside Gmail and YouTube you are
constantly sending Google your
information through their vast network
of “tracking bugs”: Google Analytics,
Google AdSense, YouTube embeds, API
calls… all of this data can be used to
monitor & track your personal web
browsing habits.